State Rep. David Richardson, D-Miami Beach, on Friday sent a hand-delivered letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican:

Dear Governor Scott,

I am writing to thank you for your comments earlier this week concerning Arizona's SB 1062. You stated "From my understanding of that bill, I would veto it in Florida because it seems unnecessary." You went on to say "I am very much opposed to discrimination."

Governor, I commend you for your statement of opposition to the discriminatory Arizona legislation. However, discrimination continues in our great state. Are you aware of the discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the state of Florida? Do you realize in the state of Florida today you can be fired from your job simply for being LGBT? Are you aware you can be denied service in a restaurant, refused housing, denied a hotel room or denied financial credit based on your sexual orientation or sexual identity?

Along with the SAVE organization, I have been working in South Florida to end discrimination for everyone, including the LGBT community. Let's meet and work together to make these types of discriminatory practices a thing of the past and ensure all Floridians have the same freedoms and opportunities. I'm available at your earliest convenience.

Alyssa Hailey of Largo, Fla., describes LGBT pride as “a way of expressing who you are, and not having any doubts or insecurities to be free and who you are — to not worry what people think.”

A struggling “trans girl” singer with an iTunes album titled Alter Ego, Hailey will spread her message this weekend at the annual Pride South Florida festival at Holiday Park / War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale.

Hailey, 28, began performing years ago as a gay man. “It never felt right. Nothing ever clicked and I felt like I wasn’t in my own skin,” she said.

In 2012, she began her transition and moved from Georgia to Florida. “I love it,” she said of her new home state. “I love the environment. It brought a new side of me out. People are very open-minded and not very judgmental.”

Still, Hailey believes she’s lost several recent job opportunities because of her transition. “I would get the call, they would run the background check and that’s where it would stop,” Hailey said. “I knew I had nothing on the background check that would prevent me from getting a job.”

Her driver’s license still shows her old photo and former name, Kenny Walker, which she has legally changed. “Some people take a second glance,” Hailey said. “Some people say, ‘Oh, you look pretty.’ I get different reactions from people. It depends on where I go.”

Hailey is among more than a dozen performers at the 2014 Pride South Florida. Headliners include Grammy-winning Sheena Easton, singer Tiffany, comic hypnotist Jon Simon and comedienne Judy Tenuta.

“Gays in general have to fight a lot of battles to be accepted and get equality,” said Tenuta, a Los Angeles-based comic who often performs at LGBT pride festivals. “I feel accepted as I accept and love them.”

Pride celebrations began worldwide following the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, the first time gays and lesbians fought back against police persecution.

This year, LGBT people have much to celebrate, said Pride South Florida co-chair Marc Hansen, referring to a U.S. Supreme Court decision last June ending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which banned federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

“Stonewall was our lynchpin, our starter fire,” Hansen said. “Now we have the death of ‘don’t ask don’t tell,’ the death of DOMA. Gay marriage is popping up all over the place. Federal courts put in place by Republican elected officials are deciding that gay marriage bans are unconstitutional. The world is changing.”

The two-day Fort Lauderdale celebration is the “only consecutively run pride in South Florida,” said Hansen, who co-chairs the 2014 festival with Rocky Bowell.

“We’re 37 years old. We started in 1977. It actually started as a march and a picnic in Miami because of Anita Bryant,” said Hansen, referring to the Florida orange juice spokeswoman who led the ‘77 drive to repeal Miami-Dade County’s original gay-rights ordinance. “It became a ping-pong set. One year in Miami, one year in Broward. Which is why they called it Pride South Florida.”

Before long, Pride South Florida became permanently ensconced in Broward.

The festival originally was celebrated in June, when most other gay-pride events take place. Fourteen years ago, the pride committee moved the festival to take advantage of winter tourism, cooler weather and better sponsorship opportunities.

As Wilton Manors’ gay population boomed in the 2000s, a new June pride festival emerged, Stonewall Summer Pride.

Beginning this year, Pride South Florida will produce both festivals. “Because we’re a glutton for punishment,” Hansen said.

I am forwarding to you some important information about an unfortunate reality. Our community has a smoking rate much higher than the general public. The Surgeon General's report corroborates data that ARROW has gleaned from our ongoing survey of LBT health behaviors: 32% of our respondents (over 900 women) smoked. And the majority of them are under age 30.

As reported in the Advocate on January 17, 2014, a new US Surgeon General report finds that 33% of LGBT people smoke, compared to just under 20% of the general public, and that LGBT people spend an estimated $7.9 billion on tobacco products annually. "People ask ‘where are the disparities now?’, and we use LGBT as an example of one of those disparities,” said acting surgeon general, Rear Admiral Boris D. Lushniak, MD, MPH. “I'm a man in uniform and this is a war. LGBT smoking is important to us, because the numbers aren't good. What we need to decide is: What is the best strategic and tactical approach to bring those numbers down?" Click here to read the Surgeon General's report: The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress.

The Day It Snowed In Miami

The issue of gay rights grew into a national story in Miami on Jan. 18,1977 when a throng of conservatives — led by entertainer and Florida orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant — packed Miami-Dade County’s commission chambers to protest potential passage of a gay rights ordinance. As heated debate took place inside the downtown chambers, temperatures outside dropped to a record low. Commissioners passed the ordinance by a 5-3 margin. As the sun rose the following morning, Miamians awakened to snowflakes — the first and only time snow fell upon the city.

BY ARNIE STAPLETON

AP SPORTS WRITER

DENVER -- Jason Collins had plenty of gifts for Matthew Shepard's parents: a basket, a blowout, an autographed No. 98 jersey that he wears in honor of their son.

They also shared some laughs.

Collins played the final eight minutes of the Brooklyn Nets' 112-89 romp over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night, and although his three points and four fouls weren't much to look at in the boxscore, rarely has the 35-year-old center been this proud of a performance.

"I got them a bucket," the center said.

After his cameo in Brooklyn's recovery from a 44-point loss against the Trail Blazers 24 hours earlier, Collins, the first openly gay athlete in America's four major sports, met with the parents of the slain Wyoming college student who was tortured and murdered in 1998 because he was gay.

Collins, who signed a 10-day contract with the Nets on Sunday, said the chance to meet Dennis and Judy Shepard was "one of those cool treats in life."

He gave them a signed black and white jersey — although not a game-worn one.

"I did not want to give them a sweaty jersey, so this is a backup," he said with a laugh.

Terrific news! Response has been so great to our upcoming Miami Herald Media Company/WPBT2 documentary, The Day It Snowed In Miami: A Chronology of the LGBT-Rights Movement, we've sold out our first screening on Tuesday, March 4, and added a second at 10 p.m.

Here are details about the film and how to buy tickets:

LGBT-rights documentary

‘The Day It Snowed In Miami,’ a chronology of the LGBT-rights movement focusing on its early days during the Anita Bryant campaign in Miami-Dade County, is a feature-length documentary by Joe Cardona in association with the Miami Herald Media Company and WPBT2.

The film will air locally at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 6, on WPBT2 and nationally on PBS throughout the rest of 2014.

A premiere screening will be at 10 p.m. Tuesday, March 4, at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach. (A 7:30 p.m. screening is sold out.)

Iowa City, IA—Scouts for Equality, the national campaign to end discrimination within the Boy Scouts of America, praised Walt Disney World’s decision to end its local support of the Boy Scouts of America’s Central Florida Council.

“We’re never happy to see Scouting suffer as a result of the BSA’s anti-gay policy, but Disney made the right decision to withhold support until Scouting is fully inclusive,” said Eagle Scout and Scouts for Equality co-founder Zach Wahls. “Scouts for Equality will continue to advocate for a fully inclusive membership policy, to help build a stronger Scouting community that is eligible for the support of Corporate America.”

Mr. Wahls is the straight son of a lesbian couple. Under the BSA’s current membership policy, parents like Wahls’ are still banned from being a part of their son’s Scouting experience, and gay Eagle Scouts will still be barred from Scouting on their 18th birthday.

In an e-mail to local members, Central Florida Council Board President Robert Utsey wrote: “We recognize that many Scout Units have received financial support over the last several years from this grant opportunity and are sad to see it go. The National BSA Council has reached out to [Walt Disney World] to try to resolve the situation, however, according to WDW, their views do not currently align with the BSA and they are choosing to discontinue this level of support.”

Since Scouts for Equality’s inception in 2012, seven major corporate sponsors of the Boy Scouts of America have ended their partnerships with the organization. These sponsors include Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, Major League Soccer, Merck, Intel, UPS and now Walt Disney World.

The quintessential Scouting film Follow Me, Boys! was produced by Walt Disney Productions in 1966 and is regularly played every summer at Boy Scout camps across the country. The film was one of the last movies produced by Walt Disney, who died of lung cancer two weeks after Follow Me, Boys! was released.

Support for same-sex marriage jumped 21 percentage points from 2003, when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, to 2013. Currently, a majority (53%) of Americans favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally marry, compared to 41% who oppose. In 2003, less than one-third (32%) of Americans supported allowing gay and lesbian people to legally marry, compared to nearly 6-in-10 (59%) who opposed.

Nadine Smith, CEO of Equality Florida, the state's leading LGBT rights group, points out that nearly 57 percent of Floridians support same-sex marriage, according to the report:

"These regional differences are also apparent among individual states. Roughly 6-in-10 Americans who live in California (59%), Pennsylvania (61%), and New York (60%) favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry. A smaller majority of Americans who live in Illinois (52%), Ohio (53%) and Virginia (52%) also favor same-sex marriage. Fewer than half of North Carolinians (47%) and Texans (48%) favor same-sex marriage. Florida stands out as an exception among Southern states with nearly 6-in-10 (57%) Floridians expressing support for same-sex marriage. See Appendix 2 for breakdowns of selected states across key issues."

MIAMI – February 27, 2014 – Celebrating sixteen years of cinematic excellence, the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (MGLFF) will present Steve Rothaus, Miami Herald’s staff writer covering LGBT issues in South Florida, with the 2014 Angel Award in recognition of his 30 years of service to the community. What is expected to be one of the highlights of the 10-day event, the Angel Award will be presented to Rothaus on the festival’s opening night Friday, May 2 at the Colony Theater where the journalist will be acknowledged for his unwavering contributions to the local film and LGBT industries.

“We couldn’t be more excited with this year’s Angel Award, recognizing local journalism-icon Steve Rothaus,” Mark Gilbert, Board Chairman and Interim Executive Director of the MGLFF said. “Not only has Steve supported and fought for the rights of our community but he has also been personally and actively involved in one of his other passions, the film industry.” He also added on a more personal note “Steve was the first member of our community to come on my gay radio show Issues Over The Rainbow in 2002 and I knew right then, what a treasure he was to the LGBT movement. He is truly one of our community’s best friends. “

In 2014, Rothaus co-produced "The Day It Snowed In Miami: A Chronology of the LGBT-Rights Movement," a film documentary presented by Miami Herald Media Company and WPBT2.

In 1985, Steve joined the Miami Herald after majoring in journalism from Florida International University. Rothaus came out at work in 1987 and served five years as a board member of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA). He founded the association's Newsroom Outreach Project and traveled the country visiting newspapers, television stations and college campuses to discuss gay news coverage and workplace issues.

The award-winning journalist has several accolades to his credit including the 1998 GLAAD Media Award for outstanding newspaper columnist. In 2001, Rothaus was part of a Miami Herald team that shared the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting.

The Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in 2010 named him Business Person of the Year and Equality Florida presented Steve with its 2012 Voice For Equality award.

“I’m very flattered the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival has chosen me to receive its 2014 Angel Award, since 1999 this event has provided our community with lots of drama (and some comedy) both on- and off-screen” Rothaus said. “One of my favorite MGLFF moments was being called –homophobe- by a reader furious over our headline for the Weekend section cover story about the 2003 festival Queer as Film.”

MGLFF runs May 2 through 11, 2014, at venues throughout Miami Beach and Miami.

For more information about the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, presented by HBO Latin America and Miami-Dade County, please visit www.mglff.com.

# # #

About the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (MGLFF):

One of the earliest, major film festivals on the LGBT circuit, the MGLFF is a critically acclaimed event which will run from May 2 to 11, 2014. Coming into its 16th year, the MGLFF is held annually throughout South Florida in the world-renowned historic South Beach district and throughout Miami-Dade County. The MGLFF is celebrated for its program of feature films, documentaries and short films by, about and of interest to the LGBT community. In 2013, screenings and special events drew nearly 15,000 attendees from greater Miami–Dade, as well as national and international visitors. The MGLFF remains active outside of the film festival to produce the Ft. Lauderdale Gay and Lesbian Film Festival every October and to provide monthly movie screenings throughout the year through its GLOW Miami and 954 GLOW programs. These programs bring year-round advance, archival and educational screenings to movie goers in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.

BY BRETT BARROUQUERE

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A federal judge on Thursday signed an order directing officials in Kentucky to immediately recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states and countries.

U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II issued a final order throwing out part of the state's ban on gay marriages. It makes official his Feb. 12 ruling that Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriages treated "gay and lesbian persons differently in a way that demeans them."

Same-sex couples may change their names on official identifications and documents and obtain any other benefits of a married couple in Kentucky. The order doesn't affect a related lawsuit seeking to force the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.